i send you this e-mail to inform you about the training schedule just before the august gathering in bern.

Best accomodation as a said will be the campsite "eichholz" www.campingeichholz.ch , not just that it's very close to the gathering / seminar location but also gives the best possibility to meet the other guys and to do some training the days before.

There will be no training camp as last year, but will teach on wednesday and thursday (11./12.august) in the morning hours (10.00 - 12.00).

Beside this official training I'm sure that you will find plenty of guys who are willing to train a bit.

If you have interest to take some private lessons with Guro "Crafty Dog" or myself the following days would be the best to do so: wednesday 11.august / thursday 12.august / monday 16.august. if you have interest to do some privates please let me know so i can organize it.

if you have any questions, please let me know. I'm very excited to see everyone.

I changed the plan, and will do now anyway a small "Training Camp" before the Euro Gathering 2010, namely on Wednesday and Thursday (11. + 12. august).

Inspired by Colin “c-Point Dog” and his idea to classify fighter-types for teaching and coaching. I came up with the idea to make a simple 4-type category: - Stalker, Counter, Attacker, Mobility - and to put these 4 fighters types in the context with the 4 elements: - Earth, Water, Fire, Air -It’s just a try to have a simple matrix to understand fighters and fight-dynamics better. I know that all these theory-models cannot be perfect, and that these archetypes are rare subsistent. Of course personalities (and fighters) are almost always a blend of different elements/types. Nevertheless this 4 archetype model is very useful to understand your adversary and yourself in a fight…

So the plan for the mini training camp is, to spend 90 minutes for each fighters type / element.

(beside of this official training I’m sure that you will find plenty of guys who are willing to train a bit during the day)

The training camp fee is: 100 sfr (70 euro)

The idea is to stay and train at the campsite "Eichholz" www.campingeichholz.chThe campsite is in my opinion the best possible accommodation to stay for, not just that it's very close to the gathering / seminar location but also gives the best possibility to meet the other guys and to do some training the days before.

Woof, A storm is brewing in Bern! Rise up!!! "Lets do this!"........ Have a great Dog Brothers week/end. and happy fighting to all! May the injury's be minimal and all leave with the same IQ they came with. Grrrl woof! C-HD

The DBMA Camp has been underway for a few days now. Guro Lonely is in fine form and I am impressed by the general skill level I am seeing on the part of Camp participants. The Camp is being held at a beautiful campsite on the banks of a river. Additional fighers are arriving each day. The energy is building , , ,

A yip to new friend Thomas, a man of varied background who brought some very exciting 3 section staff from Praying Mantis to bear!

Yes, an interesting person, and capable practitioner. I saw part of the fight, without realizing it was him. He handles the 3-section staff with considerable dexterity. Hope to see him again, in the future.

Like last year we had again 2 days of fighting. The “Tribal Gathering” on Friday and the “Regular Gathering” on Saturday. The fighters came from various countries: Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, Italy, Spain, France, Norway, Greece, Poland, Slovenia and USA.

After the “Magic Words” speech from Guro “Crafty Dog”, everybody was very motivated to start the day.

Because of the big number of fighters, we decided to go without the warm up knife rounds as we did last year. As usual most fights were done with single sticks or double stick, however we had also some good Staff fights and even a fighter from Germany who fought with a 3 sectional staff.

The decision to have the European “Gathering of the Pack” in July or August is to have the biggest chance for good weather in Switzerland. To keep the costs of the fighters low the Gathering area is close to a campsite. It’s a beautiful location close to the local river “Aare”. The plan was to have all the fighters (some even with their wife and children) on one location, to meet each other, to have interesting conversations, to do some training and to exchange ideas. Unfortunately the weather upsets a bit these good plans, as it was raining quite a bit. Although camping in rain isn’t really funny, I think most guys had a good time.

I was glad that the weather turned better on Friday. So we had the chance to have the tribal gathering outdoor. It was nice to fight on a field. And the weather stayed nice also after the gathering, so we had the possibility to do a barbeque for the fighters at the campsite. It was great to have time to sit around the Campfire and chatting about the adventure that it will continue the next day…

On Saturday we held the Gathering in a traininghall. We decide to have the open Gathering not outdoor to have more control about public matters. We had quite some people who came to watch. Although I think I should try to make more publicity so that we have a bigger crowd the next time. I organized 2 beer barrels to have a drink after the gathering. With this the people who watch the fight and the fighters could exchange their impressions of the day by a beer.

On both days, we had a lot of great fights. It was good to see to have a lot experienced fighters as well as a good amount of newbies. I was glad to see that many fighters did a good progression since the last year. Most fights were technical and one could recognize that the fighters followed game plans and strategies. We saw many fights on a high level and with great spirit. Although the fights were though we had only a few injuries.

On the following day Guro “Crafty Dog” did a seminar in which we did the “Dog Dubbing”.The “Council of Elders” is proud to announce the new members of the Tribe:

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone from bottom to top. The progression in the skill level of the Pack really impressed me at last years Private Gathering. I can only get excited when I read of our overseas Brothers doing the same.

The continued progression and consistancy is key to the strength of the Tribe as a whole. With that said, I am also grateful for the seemingly lower number of reported injuries, especially among the seasoned Dogs.

I enjoyed having 2 new women to fight (and I really hope these women come back for more next year!). Shame 3 women (including the irreplaceable Linda "Bitch" Matsumi) couldn't make it but there's a lot of buzz about women fighting now and I hold high hopes of a record number next time.

It's been fantastic to watch the general skill level rising every year, both in terms of the experienced fighters, and the new guys. I think there's some really solid training going on to bring new fighters of this calibre to a Gathering. Each year I come away with the inspiration to strive to achieve more.

I would like to chime in to the thanks and praises for a great weekend!

After missing last year's gathering I was very nervous to step on the dancefloor again. Especially as nearly everybody already had fought on friday and was sitting around calmly while I was jumping from one foot to the other the whole saturday morning.

To everybody: I'm looking forward to meet you again next year. The time will come when I will make it to the tribal gathering, too.

@ Gong fu : hiiiiiiii mate, nice to know we have this contact here. I was actually thinking about that chat not that long ago, and couldnt remember if you said you have facebook profile or not. But great to hear from you again, no doubt !!

@ guro Crafty : thank you for that explanation, I am sure people cant forget that